‘RBG’ screening presented to sold-out crowd at Theatre Three

From left, Tom Needham, Julie Cohen and Wendy Feinberg at the June 25 event. Photo by Lynn Rein

By Heidi Sutton

The film ladies of the Port Jefferson Documentary Series (PJDS) hosted a special summer screening of the blockbuster documentary “RBG” to an enthusiastic sold-out crowd at Theatre Three in Port Jefferson on June 25. Wendy Feinberg, co-director of the award-winning series, introduced the event and informed the audience that the film, which explores Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s exceptional life and career, is now the highest grossing film from Magnolia Pictures.

Feinberg had met one of the co-directors, Julie Cohen, at last year’s PJDS screening of “American Veteran.” “When she told me she was working on a film about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, I immediately thought,wow, she would be a great subject,” and invited Cohen to come back when the film was completed.

“The project started about 3½ years ago when myself and Betsy West, my directing and producing partner, started to notice that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was getting quite a bit of attention,” said Cohen. “We knew her story, we knew what an amazing woman she is … and we just said someone ought to make a documentary about her and why shouldn’t it be us?”

She continued, “We approached Justice Ginsburg with this idea, this ambitious plan to make a film about her life. Her answer to us essentially was ‘not yet.’ We looked carefully over her emails — we know the Justice is a woman who chooses her words very precisely and we know two words that were not in her emails were ‘no’ and ‘never’ so we decided to proceed. ”

The film had its world premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and has been making the rounds ever since.

The evening was preceded by a Toast to Ruth Bader Ginsburg wine and cheese reception downstairs at Griswold’s Cafe and was followed by a Q&A with Cohen which was moderated by Tom Needham, host of “Sounds of Film” on WUSB.

Reached after the event, Feinberg said she couldn’t believe the wonderful turnout. “We knew that ‘RBG’ had already played at the Cinema Arts Centre in Huntington since early May, at the AMC Stony Brook 17, and at the Port Jefferson Cinemas, among others.” While the reception sold out in two weeks, the ticket sales on the day of the event was a record for the series. Feinberg attributed the evening’s success to the film’s subject, the political climate and the fact that Julie Cohen made a guest appearance. “What can top this?” she laughed.

“It really moved so many people — they just loved it,” added co-director Lyn Boland, “It was just very gratifying to feel the community together like that. The audience’s reaction was great and on point. It was an amazing night.”

The team at the Port Jefferson Documentary Series is now preparing for its exciting Fall 2018 series, which begins on Sept. 17 with “Love, Gilda” followed by “When Lambs Become Lions” and “Roll Red Roll,” among others. Visit www.portjeffdocumentaryseries.com for updates.

The PJDS would like to thank Theatre Three, Pindar Vineyards of Port Jefferson, Wild by Nature, Pasta Pasta, Nantuckets Restaurant, C’est Cheese, Z-Pita and La Bonne Boulangerie Bakery for making the evening possible.